As a new mom to twin daughters, paying for multiple students in college at one time is something I think about all the time. I’m sure I’m not alone. As we discussed last week, merit aid (or scholarships) are available to students for a variety of reason – many of them unrelated to academic, athletic, or artistic prowess! Just as there are scholarships for tall and short individuals, there are a handful of colleges that currently offer special discounts or scholarships to siblings and multiples.

While not all colleges offer discounts or scholarships to multiples, I would highly encourage families to ask financial aid offices if they do offer such programs.

When I began refusing to eat meat in high school, I drove my mother crazy. All of a sudden, she had to cook two separate family dinners each night: one for the carnivores in the house and one for me. (Shame on me – while I had embraced eating vegetarian food, I had not yet mastered cooking it myself. I guess I owe her one.)

For any parents of vegetarian high schoolers out there enduring similar frustrations with your child’s newly restrictive diet, I have some good news. Your child’s vegetarianism may just pay off for you… in the form of a college scholarship.

Tip #3: Online database searches can yield results!

In the last two posts of our Scholarship Series, we’ve covered different types of scholarships; this week we’ll dig into one of the main resources for discovering those scholarships.

Reputable databases provide another option for acquiring monies for college. Free scholarship databases are dynamic search engines and give students an opportunity to create a profile, share demographic information, and input their specific academic interests and talents. In return, students are provided with a list of possible scholarship opportunities matching the criteria entered into the database. After reviewing the results, families can then decide which opportunities they should realistically pursue.

Tip #2: Colleges are an important source of scholarships!

In this second part of our scholarship series, we will cover colleges themselves as a source for three very different types of scholarships – merit aid, donor-restricted scholarships, and department-supported scholarships. You may also want to refer to part one of our series, where we talk about the wide availability of scholarship money.

Merit Aid

A number of colleges offer “merit aid” or “merit scholarships.” Merit aid is distinct from financial aid, as it is awarded to students who offer a special talent to an institution, rather than demonstrating a financial need for assistance. Merit scholarships are often used as a recruitment tool because they might be offered in order to positively influence a student’s enrollment decision.

5 Things Everyone Should Know About Scholarships

Whenever there is mention of college, the conversation about scholarships isn’t far behind. But what are scholarships? How can you get them? How much are they worth? Who awards them? With the cost of higher education continually rising, students should take a proactive approach in locating scholarship opportunities to help cover their college expenses. We believe students should set reasonable goals and be aware of a few important things as they search for scholarships. Over the next few weeks, we’ll introduce five things we think everyone should know about scholarships, starting with Part One below.

There are many decisions teenagers make that can cause a parent’s heart to stop. Getting a tattoo, driving a motor cycle, and proposing marriage are good examples. When my daughter announced she was applying for an Army ROTC scholarship, my heart stopped. On the one hand, out of my three children I thought she was the most suited for it, but on the other it was not something I was knowledgeable about. While I can now say it was a good decision, it took a while to get to this point.

In addition to educational opportunities in the field of game creation and design, there are now scholarships for those who play. Play you say? Yes, you play, it pays! Now, I share a 20th century parent’s natural concern for my 21st century children who are engulfed by screens throughout their day. But all those hours spent indoors could be a potential scholarship goldmine. For all the young gamers (and their parents) out there, there are whole crops of college scholarship opportunities, degree programs, and entire gaming institutions that seem to have popped up overnight.

Programs in Game Design and Creation: For years now, some schools have offered courses and even degrees in this field; the fact that you can now secure scholarships for gaming is rather new. For students interested in development, an entire gaming academy has been established at University Texas Austin.

Families that have the most success paying for college are the ones who approach the process as a family. Most people agree it is important to start talking to your children early about the importance of attending college, but what about talking about how to pay for it?

Let’s face it – looking for additional funds to cover college costs is like a part-time job, so it is wise to start as early as you can. Despite this, most of the families I speak with start searching during their senior year in high school.

Consider what would happen if you started looking for scholarships when your child was six years old? How about when your child was ten? Most families aren’t thinking about college at this point, and with less competition, your chances may actually be better at securing one of these scholarships than if you wait until your child reaches high school.

Do the college admissions and financial aid processes have you feeling a bit helpless? Does it seem that your child’s college career, future earnings potential, and overall happiness in life is left to the random whims of inscrutable admissions and financial aid officers?

Surprise! You may have more power than you think.

As your child is competing with thousands of other students to be admitted to the college of his or her choice, colleges are also competing amongst themselves to attract your child.

The New York Times recently published a preliminary report on this admissions season’s yield numbers at several dozen popular colleges. Though not a commonly known or discussed statistic among applicants and their parents, the annual yield is an incredibly significant number to colleges and their admissions offices.

How will receipt of an outside scholarship affect my financial aid offer?

Congratulations, you won the “Born on a Day Ending in Y” scholarship! All your hard work of searching, completing applications and writing essays has paid off in an outside scholarship award.

What is an outside scholarship?

Outside Scholarships—or awards from corporations, charitable and civic organizations, whether local or national—can be a great way to help pay for college. However they do need to be factored in to your overall financial aid award.

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The Insider: College Admissions Advice from the Experts is where College Coach experts weigh in on the latest college admissions topics. We cover everything from application timelines and strategies to tips on financing your child's education.